"You know what I loved about that interview is that she came with a big, wide open heart," Winfrey explained to Extra Friday. "She was in the space of forgiveness. And that she learned a lesson, that she was repeating with Chris Brown exactly what she needed to learn from her father." (During their August sit-down, Rihanna described how her father, Ronald Fenty, was physically abusive towards her mother. As she got older, though, the songstress says she was able to recognize that Fenty was a good person deep down, and that his violent behavior was a product of his struggle to overcome serious personal demons.)

If the "We Found Love" singer, 24, is indeed serious about giving her romance with Brown another shot, Winfrey says she's in no position to criticize her choice.

"I think that if she is prepared to deal with that and is prepared to help him help himself then so be it," the talk show host said. "I have no judgment about it. That's why I can sit there and have such a great time with her because I do all my interviews with no judgment whatsoever. If that's how you choose to lead your life, that's really okay."

"We love each other and we probably always will, and that's not anything that we're going to try to change," she admitted.

"I think he was the love of my life. He was my first love and I see that he loved me the same way," the Barbados-born beauty added. "The main thing for me is he's at peace. I'm not at peace if he's not happy or he's still lonely. I care. It actually matters that he finds that peace."

This week, Rihanna and Brown did little to hide their affection for one another during a series of NYC PDA-fests — first, at Griffin nightclub Monday, and then at Jay-Z's Barclays Center show on Wednesday.

On Thursday, just hours after Brown confirmed to Us Weekly he had split with girlfriend Karrueche Tran, the R&B singer shared a video message with his Twitter followers entitled "The Real Chris Brown."

"When you share with history with somebody, then you tend to fall in love with somebody else, it's kinda difficult," he says. "Is there such thing as loving two people? I don't know if that's possible, but for me, I feel like that."